Hello everyone...I'm Blair Hamilton, a product manager for My eBay. It's a big week around here for the My eBay team! We're thrilled to announce the beta launch of the new My eBay. (You may have read about the new My eBay at www.ebay.com/sneakpeek or seen our eBay Chatter blog post.)

After months and months of research, product design and development, and many discussions with buyers and sellers, we're excited for members to start kicking the tires. Over the next few days, we'll be inviting a small percentage of Community members to experience the new My eBay beta. People in this randomly selected group should receive an email in My Messages very soon.

This beta invitation is completely optional, and you can enter and leave the new beta at any time. However, your participation in the beta is really important to us, and we hope you will use the new functionality, and let us know what you think.

Didn't receive an invitation? Don't worry  you can join the beta soon! We'll be extending our invitation to join the beta to more members in the next several weeks.

As I said, we really want and need your input and feedback! Plus, we hope you are excited to try this new experience, too. Some of the more noteworthy and exciting features of the new My eBay that I hope inspire you include:

* Item Preview  View pertinent details and larger pictures of an item you are watching or bidding on without going to the view item page.
* Re-bid from My eBay - Increase your max bid without leaving My eBay.
* Meet the Seller - See a snapshot of critical seller information such as Detailed Seller Ratings, and links to a Seller's eBay Store or other items.
* Personal notes for all your items - Leave yourself helpful reminders, such as "this is the size I need" or "this is the color Mom wants."
* Personalized item recommendations - Based on your previous activity, eBay will offer new suggestions for items you might like.

Tentative Launch Plans
Everyone at eBay understands how important My eBay is to buyers and sellers. For many people, My eBay is the hub of their daily eBay activity. Because it's so central, we want to make sure you know what to expect during the launch.

We're taking a slow, cautious approach to testing and rolling this out to the Community. We've shared our tentative timeline below, although these times and plans can change if we encounter unexpected issues:

* Next few days - Less than 1% of our members will be invited to opt in to our Beta.
* Early September - An increased number of eBay members will be able to opt-in to see the new My eBay beta. You will be able to "opt-out," or switch back to the current My eBay experience, as often and whenever you like.
* End of October - Additional features will be added to the new My eBay.
* Early 2008  Start to migrate buyers and sellers to the new My eBay.